Wracked with angst over the fate of our beloved and horribly misgoverned Republic, the DiploMad returns to do battle on the world wide web, swearing death to political correctness, and pulling no punches.

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This has gotten completely out of control. I never thought I would see our country's politics reduced to the degrading levels of a Banan...

Saturday, March 24, 2018

More Stupid Ideas of March (UPDATE)

Along with other cities, Washington DC today played host to a large (How large? Who knows?) "March for Our Lives" allegedly put together by and for the students of a Parkland City high school in the wake of the mass shooting there last month. I have expressed on numerous occasions my distrust and dislike of these sort of marches (here and here, for example.) It is never completely clear what the real agenda is and who are the masterminds. (One guess what the real agenda is in this case.)

This demonstration saw the classic stupid prog props, the overwrought rhetoric and performances, including vomiting on stage by a young speaker and, of course, lots of children. Yes, children. Children placed prominently. Children as props. I have a particular disgust for people who bring small children to marches and demonstrations, and hand them pre-printed signs with cutesy sayings.

Children do not belong in such events. I have seen these affairs, in Spain, for example, go south real fast: terrified children being scooped up to get them out of the way of charging police horses, other running marchers, counter protestors, rubber bullets, tear gas, etc. The progs love to bring kids to potentially dangerous events, much like the Palestinians do.

If you're an adult, come as an adult, and brave the currents and tides of fortune as an adult--don't put children at risk. One has to wonder if deep down, some of these folks want to see a child get hurt. Anything for that CNN coverage?

Speaking of less-than-bright, a number of uber rich entertainment celebrities, protected by men with guns, made their presence known at the various anti-gun rights marches: e.g., Oprah, Clooney (who fled his mansion in "gun-less" Britain in fear for his children) and, most galling, Sir Paul McCartney who marched in New York.

We have enough homegrown idiots without need to import them. We are self-sufficient in stupidity. Why doesn't Sir Paul go home to march against knife violence and jihadi terror? Somebody said to me, well, his friend John Lennon was shot and killed in New York. Yes, well, my Foreign Service colleague Marie Burke was stabbed to death in her flat in London. Let's also not forget that Sir Paul's other buddy, George Harrison, was stabbed in his own palatial home near London. I guess I will head for London for the long-delayed anti-knife march . . . hope I don't get acid thrown in my face or run down by a jihadi in a rental van. Sir Paul, I am sure, will join me, and let me borrow his bodyguards.

34 comments:

The usual "progressive" orchestrated freak show. With children, the potential for additional victims is greater which is ok to "progressives" as long as the narrative is supported. The left is always marching as useful idiots and cannon fodder for people and forces unseen and unknown to them.

The girl that threw up? Probably not pregnancy. Most likely understandable nerves and legitimate overwhelming emotion. She sang Happy Birthday to one of her slain Parkland classmates who would've turned 18 today. She herself was shot in both legs and wounded by shrapnel in the face.

Protest is part of America. But at least protesters should be up front about what they want. Want to confiscate guns and repeal the 2nd amendment? Fine, say so.

But instead of marching, perhaps their efforts should go to running candidates who will espouse their ideas, get them elected, and change the Constitution. I've no problem with that -- we have a mechanism for it. The mechanism does not include mob rule.

There's one point that I'd object to, though: Mr. Hines says that these activist kids are not "crisis actors."

Perhaps not, but they are trained actors. They were primed and prepared for either this event, or one very similar to it, and they made the most of their opportunity. Sure, they're eloquent and "spontaneous." It takes a lot of rehearsal for an actor to appear spontaneous!

All those talking points didn't just magically appear in their (mostly empty) heads; they were provided with their script, and they've done a bang-up job with it. No wonder George Clooney, et. al. are pleased with them!

The costume department hasn't done so well. They really should have been issued brown shirts, with appropriate armbands (perhaps a lightning bolt? The swastika has been overused, so it won't do.) Snazzy uniforms will really put this show on the road!

So maybe these kids aren't "crisis actors." They're just actors, who were helped to make the best use of a crisis; as Rahm Emmanuel famously said, "You never want to let a serious crisis go to waste. It's an opportunity to do things that you did not think you could do before!"

Ahem, as tempting as it is to maintain an air of mystery... Just one of those rumors that you immediately know is true. Haha mostly blowing smoke outa my ass and got lucky. I will push my luck and prognosticate a little further. Why did Trump cave on the budget deal so uncharacteristically? Was the boost to military spending so acutely critical that nothing else mattered? Worrisome.

What all those young gun grabbers who were marching around the country this past weekend can't or don't want to realize ... is that our Second-Amendment guns help keep the likes of Donald Trump from ever trying to become our dictator.

I doubt Trump has any designs on becoming a dictator, but two points: the left thinks he does, but still wants government to control all the guns. the right thinks he doesn't, but knows that our possession of guns ensures that it doesn't matter what he wants.

I saw the interview with Diploson 3. He was great, very good discussion. This is what is so great about the US. People give their opinions proud and loud and clear even in controversial issues. Maybe it is because of the 2nd Amendment.Swedish lady

Well, I can very well imagine him on board of a long-ship ( drakskepp), maybe sailing west to visit some of the rich monasterys there and to do some persuasion... Or eastwards up the mighty Russian rivers. Did you know that the Vikings according to some historians gave Russia its name ? Roslagen is a province near Stockholm, people from there were called Ruser and they sailed eastwards.Swedish lady

In an interesting historical parallel, many of the most brutal killers in Pol Pot's "year zero" Cambodia, were "children" between the ages of eight and fourteen.

They did not shoot their victims. Firearms were for the exclusive use of the "revolutionary security forces" and ammunition was for shooting at "foreign, counter-revolutionary elements".

So what was an enthusiastic, totally programmed sociopath to do?

Well, rocks were free and pretty good for bashing in the skulls of "back-sliding" family members and former friends and neighbours.

Hardwood sticks were nicely effective, if a little slower, but broke from over-use in the service of the state.

In the spirit of the eco-nazis, a secular epiphany occurred.

The country has an abundance of sugar palm trees. So, the young creative types set to fashioning weapons from the fronds of that ubiquitous tree.

Basically, the "leafy" part of the fronds was trimmed back to leave a fairly good facsimile of a saw-tooth edge. Just the thing for slashing the throats of "the other".

When the repurposed fronds got soggy from all the blood, there were plenty more, literally growing on trees. That convergence of national icon (the sugar palm) and weaponized minds and bodies is pretty grim.

Does any of this matter? So, lots of Democrat/Liberal money got spent flying "children" (or, in World War I terms, military-aged cannon fodder) to walk up & down a bit and make a mess. Percentage of US population which witnessed a "march"? Close to Zero.

Ah! But the main point was to get CNN TV coverage. OK -- percentage of US population which watched anything about the "march" on CNN? Again, close to zero. That estimate is based on looking at bored people stuck in airports with no alternative to CNN -- and they sit with their backs to the TV screens.

If the Enemy wants to waste her resources on this kind of vacuous theater, let them get on with it!

... pissing off all the correct foreign policy opinions...I like Carter as a person, but his foreign policy views are ridiculous in regards to the US and have led to so many disasters... many far outliving his presidency.

Your comment about knifings hit a chord with me. In the years since I started teaching high school, the place where I work has had two knifings, one of which was fatal. We've also had some beatings. BTW, the rules against fighting and carrying blades are very, very strict.

Hasn't it occurred Kepha to your School Board to put up one of those little sticky-signs picturing a knife encircled in red with a red stripe from about 2 o'clock through to 7 o'clock at every door which makes that sort of thing illegal?

Seems to me your local authorities could instantly make the beatings and the fatal knifings into rather, places people "dine on herbs and live where Love is."

Obviously, the joke is that I am so naive as to think violence can be prevented entirely, as opposed to mollified.

Personally, I would be more likely to note that one fatality from two knifings and several beatings, while not a good thing, is far less bad than several deaths from a single incident. But that's just me.

I think it should bother people when adults are coaching children to become tragic symbols, rather than mourning and moving on with their lives.It's borderline abuse, and I suspect these kids will suffer greatly from it in the long run. Sure... it gets them their 15 minutes of fame, a lot of facebook likes, and the commensurate high that probably goes with it. But this is probably a time where they should be forming deeper relationships with other people, rather than being pushed to make their opinions more strident and intolerant of others.Few things makes one more resolved in their intolerance than being widely lauded for upbraiding others.

About Me

W. Lewis Amselem, long time US Foreign Service Officer; now retired; served all over the world and under all sorts of conditions. Convinced the State Department needs to be drastically slashed and reformed so that it will no longer pose a threat to the national interests of the United States.